Air Line Pilots Association, which has come out strongly in favor of arming pilots, last week asked DOT for a rule to allow pilots to have guns in the cockpit under certain conditions. ALPA submitted a petition contending that an armed cockpit crew could be an important deterrent to potential hijackers. ALPA President Duane Woerth said, "An armed flight crewmember would be the last line of defense and would be able to protect his/her crew, the passengers and ultimately people and property on the ground.
Mexico Undersecretary of Transportation Aaron Dychter announced last week that a special trust fund of one billion pesos has been set up at the banking institution Nacional Financiera (NF) to aid Mexican airlines that were severely jeopardized by the events of Sept. 11; the package was approved two months ago by the nation's congress. Up to now, airlines have been making their own adjustments to face the crisis, at least partially; they will now start submitting requests to NF for assistance.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance, February 2002 Closed Closed Monthly Change Majors Ticker 2/28/2002 1/31/2002 ($) (%) Alaska Air Group ALK 31.050 30.660 0.390 1.3 America West (Class B) AWA 3.610 3.960 (0.350) (8.8) AMR AMR 26.100 24.940 1.160 4.7 Amtran AMTR 14.100 13.000 1.100 8.5
Singapore Aero Engine Services Private Ltd. (SAESL) opened its Rolls-Royce Trent overhaul facility last week, with its executives expressing confidence that the industry's recent economic struggles won't hinder the facility's growth.
Patricia Siles, legal counsel for Cielos del Peru Airlines and a director of the Peruvian Association of Airlines, after attending a meeting in Geneva on security in the air, suggested swapping foreign debt for investment in security in civil aviation to cover the huge revenue and job losses experienced after Sept. 11. She said, "Security in the air is not an unilateral problem -- it affects the whole world. All countries concerned must make substantial investments in this area to regain the traveling public's confidence and increase sales.
Peter Rogoff, Senate Transportation appropriations staffer, pointed out that DOT has "tried so many times" without success to find a chief operating officer for FAA's performance-based ATC organization. A reason they "keep coming up short" is that the COO reports to the FAA administrator. "What COO wants a job when they don't know who the CEO is going to be?"
Building 50 miles of runways at hub airports will not solve the capacity problems, nor will new technology projects that come without a long-term plan, according to Randy Williamson, assistant director of air transportation issues at the General Accounting Office.
Delta Connection carrier Comair is adding regional jet service between Cincinnati and Oklahoma City and Savannah. Comair is adding one RJ roundtrip to each destination, to be operated with the Canadair Regional Jet. The new service increases to three the number of flights daily from Cincinnati to both cities.
Fresno-based Allegiant Air has reached a two-year deal with Harrah's Hotel and Casinos to provide MD-87 charter flights to Reno from cities across the U.S. Flights will operate Thursday and Sunday, with arriving passengers staying as guests at Harrah's Reno, Harrah's Tahoe and Harvey's hotels.
Standard&Poor's said this week that General Electric's announcement that 2002 revenue for its aircraft engines unit will decline 15-20% from $11.4 billion in 2001 and that engine services revenue will drop by double digits "has no effect on the company's credit rating or outlook." S&P said that aircraft engines are an important segment for GE, representing about 9% of revenues and 12% of segment profits last year. It said orders for new aircraft engines are forecast not to recover until 2004.
DOT's modal agencies, spurning a Volpe Center report, see no need for a backup to GPS, according to recommendations sitting on the desk of DOT Secretary Norman Mineta. The recommendations, which have not been make public, also cast doubt on the future of the Loran-C program. Stewart Shoulta, chief of radionavigation policy for the U.S. Coast Guard, relayed this information to a meeting of the Northern European Loran System (NELS). The DAILY obtained the minutes of the NELS meeting.
U.S.-Hong Kong negotiations continue for a third day, but ""clearly there will not be an agreement this round," according to an industry source. Today's talks "will be crucial" to determining whether there is enough common ground to plan further negotiations.
Emirates yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to buy two versions of Engine Alliance's GP7000s for its Airbus A380s, helping to close the gap between the superjumbo program's two engine suppliers. The deal calls for the GP7270s rated at 70,000 pounds of thrust to power Emirates' 20 passenger versions, and 76,500-pound GP7277s to power the carrier's two freighters.
Federal government "fails to meet any legal test or precedent under which American's competition with new entrant airlines could be found to be anything other than legal competition," the carrier said in its opposition to the Justice Department's appeal of the summary judgment in its case alleging predatory pricing. DOJ charged American with attempting to monopolize certain routes from Dallas/Fort Worth. The court should focus on antitrust principles, which protect competition rather than competitors, American said.
Discussions on possible reconsideration of probable cause of the EgyptAir accident are going on at the NTSB. A source said that three board members support staying with the original probable cause, and two do not. "Anything less than a unanimous decision to stay with the existing probable caused could come as a blow" to board aviation staff, following the board's recent reconsideration of the ATR accident, the source said. One board member is holding up the ATR reconsideration.
Boeing's Aircraft Trading Group is doing brisk business selling Airbus airplanes, President Dinesh Keskar told Aviation Week's Show News this week at the Asian Aerospace show in Singapore. Singapore Airlines is the source of the 17 Airbus A340-300s that are flowing through Keskar's books after Boeing took them in part exchange for 10 Boeing 777-200ERs. The deal made headlines a couple of years ago when SIA decided to go with the 777s instead of the A340s it had ordered, forcing Boeing to take and sell almost-new competitors' airplanes. Morale Booster
International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations said this week it convinced ICAO to re-examine provisions of revised aviation security guidelines that "threatened to hamper general aviation/ aerial work." John Sheehan, secretary general of IAOPA, said the new security standards enacted after Sept. 11 "focused entirely upon air carriers with no mention of general aviation and aerial-work flying." He said some of the restrictions, such as ramp access, would have either severely restricted the flow of GA traffic or proven prohibitively expensive.
Augsburg Airways, the first German customer of the 70-plus-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop, said this week that the aircraft has proven a success and a "very economic aircraft." Augsburg noted that operating costs have been in line with the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet, and in some cases seat kilometer costs have been 30% below those of the 50-seat Q300. In the U.K., the Q400 operates two daily flights between London City and Munich on behalf of Lufthansa, Augsburg said.
Sun Country on Wednesday expects to win final court approval for its reorganization plan that should result in profitability in the third quarter. CEO David Banmiller told The DAILY yesterday that negotiations are nearly complete with MN Airlines LLC for acquisition of Sun Country's assets. The US Bank has a $13.5 million lien on the airline, and MNA plans to purchase certain Sun Country assets that will let the airline continue its ramp-up and purchase new equipment.
U.S. Major Carriers Change In RPMs, ASMs and Load Factor Third Quarter 2001 Load Factor (%) 2001 2000 Pts. Change Alaska 71.0 71.8 -0.8 America West 74.0 73.0 0.9 ATA 76.2 74.9 1.3 American 72.3 76.3 -4.0
Air France, TAP Air Portugal, Luxair, Adria Airways, Iberia, Cyprus Airways, BMI British Midland and Finnair were the only members of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) that posted a traffic increase in January, compared with January 2001. All other AEA carriers continued to suffer from weak demand, with several airlines still showing dramatic declines. The biggest exception to the trend was BMI British Midland, whose traffic was up 11.1%. Also, TAP posted strong 6.6% growth.
SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express are discontinuing their merger talks after they failed to reach an agreement by today's self-imposed deadline. The two Belgian airlines will continue to operate as two separate carriers but could deepen their existing commercial relationship. SN Brussels, formerly Delta Air Transport (DAT), and Virgin Express, had been in exclusive negotiations since late December 2001.
AirTran said yesterday it is accelerating its fleet modernization program with delivery of 20 Boeing 717 aircraft in 2002 financed by Boeing Capital Corp. In conjunction with the deliveries, AirTran will retire 14 DC-9s, achieving a seat-mile growth rate of more than 20% for the year. AirTran is the launch customer for the 717 and the largest operator with 32 in the current fleet.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts charged 20 individuals working for six private firms at Boston Logan Airport with providing false information to "obtain employment and access badges to secure areas" at the airport. The Secure Identification Display Area (SIDA) badges, property of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), are issued once FAA guidelines regarding the completion of Form UA1 are followed, including a background history check as well as a criminal history check by the Massachusetts State Police.
